Born a travelin’ cat

I have nothing much to say today, so I’m going to talk about my awesome cat.

Dinner plans with friends tonight. They have a cat. We attended – and we brought our cat on the F train up to 34th street so she could come to dinner, too. Our Emmy loves traveling and exploring new places. It’s weird…but I don’t mind being that crazy cat lady on the subway. Kitty play date. Yes, I am that girl.

Cat and owner both thoroughly enjoyed the excursion! Thanks J & H for having us over!

Today’s EAT: My cook-at-home lunch plans were easily sacrificed when the hubs left a critical work thing at home this morning. I knew at some point, when he realized what he’d forgotten, I’d get an email asking for a lunch date. Sure enough, at 11:15, it hit my inbox! I suggested Simple Kitchen in Chelsea for our lunch date. It was a great choice! Clean eaters would rejoice at this place – everything was so fresh and healthy and delicious. I must constantly remind myself of how lucky I am that eating out in NYC doesn’t necessarily mean eating unhealthy.

Dinner was cooked by my awesome friend J – a traditional middle eastern dish of chicken, rice, yogurt and spices. I can’t wait to get the recipe and try it. So simple and flavorful!

Today’s RUN: I couldn’t make to to CPTC Tempo Thursday, due to my dinner party date. 🙂 But in the spirit of keeping myself on the same schedule, I set out for a 5-mile tempo run today. I had such a great run on Tuesday night without my watch that I decided to just ignore it tonight and focus on pushing my pace a bit on my normal five-mile Hudson River route.

I was shocked when I finished: 36:10. Um, what?

After I got home I double checked the distance on mapmyrun: 4.96 miles. I added 20 seconds to my run for the 0.04 I was short – which is generous. Still. Damn. ~7:18 pace. And it felt totally carefree and easy.

I’m starting to think that I just have issues with my watch and should start leaving it at home all of time! Clearly I run better when I’m not constantly aware of my progress!

Today’s QUESTION: Do you run with a watch, a Garmin, a Nike+, or nothing at all? What do you like – or don’t like – about it? I am starting to think there might be something very valuable about a sort of “intuitive running” process. Lately I’ve been loving just running according to my perceived effort and have been running much faster!

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9 responses to “Born a travelin’ cat”

Congrats on your fast run! I run with a Garmin. I did 6mi yesterday and for the last 2 miles I completely focused on my music and an object in front of me instead of looking at my watch every 20 seconds and my run improved. (not 7:18 like you =) .. ) but it was faster then what i had been running the first 4 miles at. But I can not go w/o my watch i just need to train myself not to look at it so friggin’ often. I run on a trail and there are no markers to tell how far i’ve gone so i kind of need it for distance! Wish i was brave enough to run my 10k tomorrow w/o it.. probably not though. Happy Friday!

This is the same dilemma that I have! I kind of want one because I think it could be a good thing, but I can’t justify the cost and I worry about it making me a headcase or taking the fun out of running.

I got a Garmin for Christmas and I absolutely love it. I am still a fairly new runner, and it is helping me push my pace and get faster. Occasionally I’ll go without, which I suppose is nice for a change. Since getting the Garmin, I know that I will always race with it!

Garmin whore over here. I’ve been running with one for nearly two years, and I really wouldn’t go back. For all the neuroses it fosters, I think it’s a really spectacular training tool, especially when you’re running an unfamiliar route. The older model ones are also very affordable on eBay.

I use my Polar heart rate monitor to calculate calories and to stay within my heart rate range. I use my Nike+ for the ipod feature only. I want to use the Nike+ for my pace but I don’t think it’s very accurate….

I run with $12 watch I got two years ago and my cellphone. My cellphone tracks my run for me, but I don’t usually check it, unless I need to check my distance (I tend to roam around exploring without a planned route).